FROM her skimpy outfits in the Pussycat Dolls to stripping off in the I'm A Celeb shower – it's no secret that Ashley Roberts has an incredible figure.

But now the former Strictly star, 37, has finally revealed the secret behind her toned physique…pizza.

Ashley has revealed she gorges on the tasty Italian delicacy and other fatty foods at least once a week – and says it's the key way she stays in shape.

In particular, she claims that keeping a "balance" is her main motto when it comes to maintaining a healthy body and mind.

In an exclusive interview, she said: "I try to live life in balance because I feel like if you go to one extreme or the other sometimes it doesn't maintain.

"I feel like it's important to eat healthy food because it fuels your body, it fuels your brain but also I just love a good pizza – and I just think having a pizza a week is all really within balance.

"It's also what works best for your body and figuring that out, and for me I do like to have pizza or a takeaway or cookies.

"If I have a shoot coming up maybe I might be a bit more strict on my diet but in life I just like to have a bit of balance – and if I want something I eat it.

"You can have foods that you enjoy but maybe just not over-indulging in them and if you keep a balance your body is kind of able to break it down more and use it as fuel rather than it storing it in the body and causing other side-effects because it won't be beneficial to you.

"For me it's about balance – if I want to have a pizza I'm like, 'I'm going to go and enjoy this' and not go and beat myself up – I just enjoy it and let the thoughts be that I'm going to enjoy it and then I feel like the body will digest it more easily."

And Ashley has such a love of pizza she even filmed a US show specifically about the food, where she met pizza expert Scott Weiner and set out to explore pizza traditions both old and new.

Despite this, Ashley, who began training as a dancer age three, says her love of dance and all the time she's spent doing it on Strictly Come Dancing last year and during her time in the Pussycat Dolls has inevitably kept her in shape too.

Speaking ahead of the launch of a new BACARDÍ dance class at FRAME in London, she added: "I didn't realise as a young age when I was doing hip hop and ballet and jazz that the fitness was the beneficiary of doing the art.

For me it's about balance – if I want to have a pizza I'm like, 'I'm going to go and enjoy this' and not go and beat myself up

"For me I was like this is about self-expression, I want to go out there and move my body and express myself through that but what an amazing side-effect of it is that you are doing fitness and you're toning your muscles, your legs, your arms – everything gets worked when you're dancing.

"My mum was into fitness when I was younger and I actually didn't realise it 'till I got older and I was like, 'wow', this is actually a great way to do fitness as well."

And while dance is her main form of exercise, Ashley also loves hot yoga and spinning – as well as working out with her new boyfriend Giovanni Pernice.

"I really resonate with dancing but I love yoga, I love spinning, I love dancing and I love boxing", she said.

"Gio and I do work out sometimes, we just did like a circuit together the other day actually – he dances a lot more than I do with being in rehearsals and stuff but that's what's so great we have a lot of like-minded stuff and things to do together in life which is enjoyable when you're in a relationship.

"He always wants to lift me in the gym, he always wants to do the Dirty Dancing lift, I'm like 'baby stop, I've done it enough within the show'."

And she could be getting even more dance workouts in after she refused to rule out a Pussycat Dolls reunion with pal Nicole Scherzinger.

She teased: "I would love to do a Pussycat Dolls reunion some day – hopefully it will happen.

"We all do keep in touch, we're all on our little paths but we do all connect with each other at some point and check in."

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